Breathe
by EmberForge
Summary: "You'll be alright, Sarah. I promise."


_"...arah? ...hear me?"_

Everything's fuzzy. Sarah Jane comes slowly back to awareness at the sound of a voice talking to her, though her mind won't let go of the fog it's currently swimming in. Her limbs feel like lead, and all she can manage to respond with is a groan that barely leaves the confines of her throat.

 _"...going to be alright, Sarah."_

She's being carried, that much she can tell. Her eyelids are heavy and refuse to open, but she slowly recognizes the fact that it's the Doctor speaking to her, that he must be the one carrying her as well. The air shifts, and suddenly she hears the familiar sound of the TARDIS, the Doctor's shoes clacking along the hard floor as he carries her further inside. "Almost there," he tells her, though she has no idea what he's talking about. After a moment she hears a door slide open, and she's gently placed down onto a firm surface.

Sarah manages to open her eyes a crack, but everything is too bright and blurry. The back of her mind registers the fact that she's in the TARDIS medbay, but she's more focused on the velvet clad man in front of her. She feels his fingertips against her wrist, counting the beats of her heart. _What happened?_ she wants to ask, but her sluggish mind won't tell her mouth to work.

Suddenly, she feels something cold swipe at the crook of her elbow, followed by a sharp pinch. She groans again. The Doctor shushes her, mumbles soothing words to try to comfort her, but nevertheless she can't help but try to move away from the invasion. It goes away after only a moment, the sound of footsteps following, but Sarah's attempts at movement don't seem to work. She tries to raise her other hand to grab the affected arm, but it doesn't obey her commands. She tries to wiggle her fingers and toes. Nothing. Sarah starts to panic.

She can't move.

All she can do is dart her eyes around frantically as she feels her heart and breath speed up. Slow footsteps become fast, and it takes a moment before she registers the hands on either side of her face, the Doctor's eyes gazing into her own.

"Sarah, you need to calm down. You've been drugged, and that's why you can't move, but everything is going to be okay. I need you to calm down, now. Try taking some deep breaths with me."

The Doctor's hands never leave her face. She sees his chest rise and fall in an over exaggerated motion, and she tries her best to copy him, but it seems that her body won't obey her in this, either. She feels involuntary tears in the corner of her eyes as she stares at the Doctor and gasps for breath. _Please, help me_ , she tries to say, but all she can do is stare.

He seems to realize that she can't manage it, and he gives her a sad but reassuring smile. "I'm going to put you to sleep, alright Sarah? You're going to hyperventilate if I don't, and I'd rather that didn't happen." She just stares at him, gasping, but she thinks he see the acceptance in her eyes, because his hands travel up to her temples and his fingers start to rub small circles there. Sarah finds her eyes getting heavier, her breathing starts to slow, and the last thing she registers is the Doctor's voice.

"You'll be alright, Sarah. I promise."

 _They're orange, and they look a bit like giant flowers. Sarah knew that the Doctor mentioned what they were called once, but the name was long and complicated, and she had forgotten it mere minutes after it was told to her. She didn't think they were very frightening at first, but now, staring at them towering over her while she's chained up in a cell in the bowels of their space ship, she's starting to change her mind. It doesn't help that their language is only a series of clicks - they may have been able to understand her, but she certainly couldn't understand them._

 _One who looked like the leader of the group stepped forward. He seemed to be speaking, but his words were lost on her. He paused, seeming to expect a reply, but she knew she couldn't give him an appropriate one. "I'm sorry, but I can't understand you," she told him._

 _This obviously wasn't the response he wanted, judging by the angry tone his responding clicks take. He says something to the guards that brought her there, and suddenly she's released from her chains attached to the wall and being hoisted up roughly, her arms pulled behind her back and secured. She jerked in their grip, but the guards just tighten their hold. She felt the manacles dig uncomfortably at her wrists as they dragged her along._

 _Minutes passed, though they feel like hours, and suddenly they're passing into what appears to be a laboratory. Sarah became more uneasy as they wound between tables, the instruments surrounding them becoming more and more wicked looking as they passed. Suddenly, they came to an area that looked like a medical lab. The guards shoved her forward, and her knees buckled as she hit the edge of a cot, sending her toppling onto it. She glared at them, but they seemed to be unaffected by her anger._

 _Another flower creature moved towards her, rolling over a cart filled with some of the scary looking instruments that they had passed by. He momentarily shuffled things around on the cart, blocking her view of it, before turning around with what appeared to be a mask attached to a gas canister. Sarah's eyes widened. "Don't come near me with that thing."_

 _The creature clicked at her, then started walking towards her._

 _"Stop," Sarah insisted._

 _It didn't listen. She backed as far away as she could, feeling trapped as she felt her back hit the cold metal wall. The creature crouched by the cot, bringing the mask towards her face, and Sarah shook her head violently, trying to keep him from putting it on her. The guards stepped forward, and she suddenly felt hands pull at her hair as they held her head still. "No, please," Sarah tried, but the flower creature held the mask firmly to her mouth and nose. She tried holding her breath, but a sudden burst of purple gas from the mask made her cough, and she couldn't stop herself from inhaling._

 _Sarah's eyes started to become heavy. Hands left her head as a distant crash sounded, but she no longer had the energy to pull away. "Doctor, help..." she whispered, and then everything went black._

Sarah comes back to awareness slowly, the images of what had happened still flashing behind her eyelids. She still has the uncomfortable feeling of a mask on her face, and turns her head side to side to try to get the feeling to go away. She's pleased to find that her head is able to move, but the feeling won't go away, and she opens blurry eyes to find that there is in fact a mask attached to her face.

Sarah panics, desperate to get it off. Her clumsy limbs are slow to respond, but all that matters is that they are responding, and she tries pulling at the mask. She can hear a frantic beeping coming from somewhere near her, which causes hurried footsteps to move towards her. Sarah tries even harder to pull the mask off, when suddenly warm hands cover hers, gently but firmly holding her hands still. "Sarah, stop. It's okay. It's just oxygen."

Sarah freezes. She looks up to find the Doctor hovering over her, giving her a soft smile as she meets his eyes. "We're in the TARDIS medbay, remember? you're safe." The energy drains from Sarah at his words, her arms going limp. The Doctor gives her hands a reassuring squeeze before carefully bringing them to lay at her sides.

"Doctor," she says, and has never been more overjoyed at hearing the sound of her own voice, "What happened?"

"After the Voloxcarforacians kidnapped you, we had to figure out where their ship was. It took a little longer than we anticipated, but as soon as we knew where you were, the Brigadier and his men created a distraction while I went to find you. Their lead scientist was drugging you with a paralytic gas." He saw her worried expression, and his eyes softened. "That's all he managed to do before I found you. Nothing else. I took you to the TARDIS, and I managed to reverse engineer an antidote with what was left over in the canister he was using. It had to be administered through inhalation as well, which is the other reason you're wearing that mask. You'll be able to take it off soon."

"Do you..." Sarah paused. "Do you know what they were going to do to me?"

"...I didn't stop to ask."

"But you have a guess."

The Doctor was silent for a moment. "A few, yes," he eventually said. "But nothing for certain, so it's best not to speculate. It would only cause unneeded worry. They're gone, and they can't harm you anymore."

"They left?"

"Yes. After I attended to you, I went and had a little talk with them. They assured me that they wouldn't be coming back to Earth any time in the near future. Or the distant one, for that matter." There was a twinkle in his eye that gave Sarah the impression that whatever had gone on, there was more to the 'talk' than the Doctor was telling her. She couldn't help but smile at the ridiculous images that came to mind, causing the Doctor to grin back at her.

There was a sudden beep from an instrument beside her bed, pulling the Doctor's attention away from the moment. He went over and studied the machine, then let out a satisfied hum before moving over and sitting on the edge of the cot that Sarah was laying on. "The antidote should be finished. We can take this off now," he said. He carefully removed the mask from her face, setting it on a small table next to them. He then pulled out a stethoscope from his pocket, lifting her blouse slightly to position it on her back. "Deep breaths, now."

Sarah did as he requested, and once he was satisfied, he stuffed the stethoscope back into his pocket before holding his hand up in front of her. "One last thing. I want you to grab my hand, and squeeze it as hard as you can."

Sarah slowly raised her arm from the cot. She grabbed his hand in her own, then squeezed with all her might. The Doctor made a face, then let out a sharp laugh. "Any harder, and you might break my fingers!" Sarah quickly let go, blushing. The Doctor let out another chuckle, patting her hand reassuringly. "Nothing to worry about. It's a very good thing, actually. You're just about good as new. You may feel a bit tired for a little while longer, but you seem to be back to full strength."

Sarah smiled at his words. "That's wonderful! Thank you, Doctor. It was so terrible, to feel powerless like that."

At her words, the Doctor's mood sobered. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there earlier, Sarah. I might have been able to prevent all of this from happening."

This time, it was Sarah who gave the Doctor's hand a reassuring pat. "It's alright, Doctor. You did the best you possibly could. Besides, everything's alright now."

"No matter what, Sarah, I will always come for you. I will never leave you behind." The Doctor grabbed her hand and squeezed it with his own. Sarah just smiled at him in response.

"I know."


End file.
